Tuesday, May 16, 2017

How I Plot My Novels

A
friend requested I do a blog post outlining how I plot my novels and write
synopsises. This is not a ‘how to’, rather just an explanation of what I do,
which may or may not be practical for everyone else.

First,
I should note, I have two slightly different processes, depending on if it is a
co-authored novel or a solo novel. I will outline my solo novel process first,
then explain how I plan co-authored novels second, as the latter is the more
nonsensical, confusing method of the two. As co-authoring requires a lot of
organic development of plot and characters, whereas when I work solo I prefer
logic and structure.

Solo Book
Plotting:

Firstly,
I come up with the very barebone plot idea. One or two sentences that encompass
the story in the broadest sense. For example, Lifesphere: Acquisition was
something like: ‘People bond with a creature/monster and compete in an arena.’

Usually,
mentally, I will have a much greater idea of what I want to do, who the
characters are and what will happen. I don’t normally start writing anything
until the idea is mature in my mind. However sometimes idea come to me in an
instant—an entire world, all the characters and the entire plot, in a few
minutes. They hit hard and fast and often leave me with a blinding headache,
during which I try and write as much down about it as I can. More often, ideas
form and build slowly, developing over weeks and months until I decide they are
formed enough to start working on.

After
I have the basic premise written down, I write the genre, target audience and
an estimated word count goal, alone with the number of chapters I want and how
long I want those chapters to be. This is just a guideline, but it’s a
guideline I like to have in place, as it helps with the development of the
plot.

If
you know how long the book is and how many chapters it will have, you can get a
rough idea of how many scenes you will need. For Lifesphere, I had 1-2 scenes
per chapter and 4-7 plot points per chapter, so I could see that everything was
moving along at a nice pace and there weren’t any areas the story lagged.

Once
I have the basic premise and the word and chapter count, I make a note of the
major character roles. In Lifesphere, it was Eli, Squall, both of their meka,
Aquillis, Kalex and Aeryn. They didn’t have names yet, just roles. Main
character, villain, etc. I made some notes about them, such as that Eli lived
in a shanty on a rubbish tip and Squall was in a wheelchair. I gave them all
things they wanted most in the world, things they were willing to fight and die
for. I usually name them at this stage, though often the names are placeholder
names.

Then
I write out a list of things and scenes that I want to happen in no particular
order. All the possible scenes I have in my head, good, bad, confusing. I just
write them all in bullet points. I keep going until I have no more ideas for
scenes, however often writing one will lead to ideas for more. So, I may end up
with between 20-50 scene ideas at this stage.

I
then start looking for a logical order to the scenes and form them into a
narrative arc. Some will be cut at this stage, as not all of them will fit. By
the end of this, I should have a rough skeleton of a plot.

Usually
then I go back to the character profiles and add a lot more detail and any new
characters I need. I make sure everyone has descriptions so they stay
consistent, last names, first names and I name their family members so I don’t
have to try and think of a name while I am writing.

This
is also when I tend to do world building, though when I am writing my own
novels, world building might happen randomly at any stage in the process.
Worlds come to me very easily and quickly and stay with me a lot longer than
other elements. Because I have SO MUCH world building in my brain, it actually
rarely makes it to the page. For example, I can’t remember the names of any of
the characters from the first novel I ever wrote (I, Aratika), but I do
remember extensive details of how they farmed quails and how male and female quails
were used in separate dishes and what those dishes were and when it was
appropriate to eat them. That information never even made it into the book.

Once
I am happy with the character profiles, I go back to the bullet point plot. I
make headings for every chapter number in a new file (or page on scrivener) and
I start placing my plot points in chapters. I write in where I want
cliff-hanger chapter endings and flesh out the plot and add any bridging scenes
as I go. I am pretty good at estimating how many words each scene will need to
be, so it’s easy for me to space the scenes between the chapters and end up
with a reasonably consistent word count.

I
then spend a few days fleshing out the plot, so that there is as much detail in
each chapter as possible and I know everything I need to know. Then I can start
writing.

Plotting
Co-authored Books:

If
my solo plotting method is painting with a fine brush on a canvas, my
co-authored plotting method is firing paint at a wall with a cannon.

Somethings
are the same. Firstly, there is a premise. EG: ‘A figure skater and an ice
hockey player fall in love and they’re TOTES GAY AS BALLS.’ Which I then have
to convince my co-author to write with me. However, I usually find the words
‘gay as balls’ will entice her to write almost anything.

Secondly,
I work out the character roles.

Thirdly,
the character roles are assigned to myself or my co-author.

Fourth
step is me plotting the first section of the book—usually the first third—with
bullet points for the major scenes.

Fifth,
world building. Buckets of it. If you’re going to play in the same world, you
need to know what that world is like. Sometimes part of this is done verbally
and with comparisons to other settings. Usually there are floating islands. I
love floating islands.

That
is pretty much all we do before we start writing. Which means I must do a lot
of tracking and adjusting as we go. Because of the way we write, the plot
course can change dramatically, so I usually reassess when we finish the first
third of the plot points, then write the next third—another 20 bullet points or
so—then depending how they play out, I plot the end.

Our
co-authored ideas need be a lot more flexible in terms to structure and
direction. Which often means a lot more editing when they’re done. However,
given they only take a month or so to write and they’re usually over 100k, the
extra editing time still makes them time efficient. They’re also a lot of fun
to write, because we’re both constantly being surprised by the twists as we
write, even though there is planning and structure in place.

So,
there it is. The two, slightly insane methods I used to plot novels. Maybe this
was helpful or insightful. Maybe I just look slightly crazier in your eyes now.
Either way, is fine with me.

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About Me

Born in 1985, Talitha is a geeky Australian writer who spends an unhealthy amount of time reading and watching horror movies. She also loves fresh water shrimps and snakes, and lives in a house dominated by various tanks housing both. She advises that shrimps are the best companions for writers; as they always look like they are typing. Snakes, on the other hand, simply knock everything off your desk—including keyboards, mugs, entire computers and shrimp tanks.
Talitha’s other interests include entomology, rock climbing, reading, web design, photography and video gaming.